阿肯色医科大学获222.85万美元联邦拨款：研究呼吸机相关肺炎的预防新法
位于阿肯色州普拉斯基县小石城的阿肯色医科大学（UAMS）11月4日宣布，该校获得美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）为期五年、总额2,228,500美元的研究拨款，用于研究呼吸机相关肺炎的发病机制与预防方法。这笔拨款属于竞争激烈的「院长新创新者奖」（奖号DP2A1200953），由国立过敏与传染病研究所提供，旨在支持具有创新思路的青年研究者。
项目负责人是微生物学与免疫学助理教授克莱·杰克逊-利特肯（Clay Jackson-Litteken）。他的团队将聚焦鲍曼不动杆菌——一种常在医院环境中存活、且频繁产生耐药性的细菌——研究它如何在插管患者体内引发肺炎。
呼吸机相关肺炎是重症监护中最棘手的医院感染之一。使用呼吸机的患者中，近半数会发生这类感染。气管插管在挽救生命的同时，也为细菌进入下呼吸道打开了通道；而致病菌多为耐药菌株，使治疗选择非常有限，患者病程与住院时间被显著拉长。
杰克逊-利特肯的研究思路包括建立更贴近临床情形的感染模型，并探索通过处理气管插管等方式，在细菌定植与入侵发生之前就加以阻断。研究团队希望，这项工作最终能给出可以落地的预防方案，减少重症患者不必要的感染与死亡。
阿肯色医科大学是阿肯色州唯一的学术医学中心。校方表示，这笔联邦拨款将支持实验室在未来五年持续推进该方向的研究，并培养相关领域的科研人员。
（来源：阿肯色医科大学）
UAMS Receives $2.2 Million NIH Award: Studying How to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, announced on November 4 that it has received a five-year, $2,228,500 research award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how ventilator-associated pneumonia develops and how it might be prevented. The funding comes through the NIH Director's New Innovator Award program (award DP2A1200953), supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which backs early-career investigators pursuing innovative ideas.
The project is led by Clay Jackson-Litteken, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology. His team will focus on Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium that persists in hospital environments and frequently develops antibiotic resistance, examining how it goes on to cause pneumonia in intubated patients.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia is among the most difficult hospital-acquired infections in intensive care. Nearly half of patients placed on ventilators develop the infection: the breathing tube that keeps patients alive also gives bacteria a pathway into the lower airways, and the organisms involved are often drug-resistant, leaving clinicians with limited treatment options and prolonging hospital stays.
Jackson-Litteken's approach includes building infection models that better reflect clinical conditions and exploring ways to intervene at the level of the endotracheal tube itself, blocking bacterial colonization and invasion before pneumonia takes hold. The team hopes the work will yield prevention strategies that can be put into practice at the bedside.
UAMS is Arkansas's only academic medical center. The university said the federal award will sustain the laboratory's work in this area over the next five years and support the training of researchers in the field.
(Source: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)
来源：阿肯色医科大学
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：阿肯色医科大学地区中心（资料图）。图片来自 Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0。 / A UAMS regional center (file photo). Image via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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